Nevil Maskelyne, the Nautical Almanac, and G.M.T.

1985 ◽  
Vol 38 (02) ◽  
pp. 159-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Howse
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Standard Work ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Nevil Maskelyne ◽  
Nautical Almanac

Early in 1967, a few months before the restored Meridian Building of the Old Royal Observatory was opened to the public by Sir Richard Woolley, the Astronomer Royal, I received a visitor in my office then in the Meridian Building — later, I was to move to the west summer house of Flamsteed House. My visitor was Colonel Humphrey Quill, Royal Marines, Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers that same year and author of the hookJohn Harrison, the Man who Found Longitude, which has become a standard work. He brought with him some manuscripts written by the subject of this lecture — Nevil Maskelyne, fifth Astronomer Royal, who lived in Flamsteed House for 46 years from 1765, making most of his important astronomical observations in the very building in which Col. Quill and I were sitting.

Harrison Decoded

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Electronic Equipment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Written Descriptions ◽  
Pendulum Clock

This volume centres on a clock, known as Clock B, built in the mid-1970s that achieved considerable acclaim after an extraordinary performance in a 2015 peer-reviewed public trial at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The clock was built according to an understanding of John Harrison’s unique theoretical approach to making precision pendulum clocks, which defies the standard approaches to making accurate clocks. The clock represents the culmination of over forty years of collaborative research into Harrison’s writing on the subject, which is scattered across a number of manuscripts and a book, printed shortly before his death. Ostensibly, Harrison set out to describe how to make his precision pendulum clock, but it is a mixture of his peripheral interests. Horological information is almost completely lost among vitriolic sentiments relating to his experiences with the Board of Longitude. However, as one reviewer surmised: ‘we are sorry to say that the public will be disappointed’ and another concluded that ‘it can only be excused by superannuated dotage’. The chapters provides contextual history and documentation of the analysis and decoding of the cryptic written descriptions. It presents this in parallel to the modern horological story of making, finishing, and adjusting Clock B; the process of testing, using electronic equipment to monitor the its performance and reaction to changes in environmental conditions, and, indeed, the mechanics behind the various compensating features of the design.

scholarly journals XXII. An improved solution of a problem in physical astronomy; by which, swiftly converging series are obtained, which are useful in computing the perturbations of the motions of the Earth, Mars, and Venus, by their mutual attraction. To which is added an appendix, containing an easy method of obtaining the sums of many slowly converging series which arise in taking the fluents of binominal surds, &c. In a letter to the Rev. Nevil Maskelyne, D. D. F. R. S. and Astronomer Royal

1798 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 527-566
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Easy Method ◽  
Strong Argument ◽  
Mutual Attraction ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many ◽  
Nevil Maskelyne

Reverend Sir, Such is the subject of the inclosed paper, and such the repu­tation for skill and industry, which the many valuable papers you have communicated to the Royal Society, and your other learned works, have justly procured to you, that it could not with more propriety be submitted to the judgment of any other person than yourself, even if the writer of it were a stranger to you. But there are circumstances which render my presenting it to you, in some measure, a duty. I had the advantage of being, for some years, your Assistant in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich; during which time, you made the important observations on the mountain Schehallien , in Scotland, which afford an ocular demonstration of the attraction of that mountain, and a strong argument for the general attraction of matter, a subject nearly connected with that of the following pages; and it was from you that I received the problem of which you will here find an improved solution.

scholarly journals Globalization and Muslims: The Concerns & Contradictions

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 562
Author(s):  
Mohd. Habib
Keyword(s):  
Social Scientists ◽  
The West ◽  
Secular Humanism ◽  
The Public ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
Christian Morality ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Definition Of

<p>Globalization has been defined in many different ways as the subject has been dealt by many philosophers, social scientists and policymakers with various approaches. Here for the convenience to elaborate the subject, we use the definition of Roland Robertson a known scholar of the subject who applies  the term to ‘<em>a consciousness of the growing connectivity and integration not only between countries and region of the world but also between all manner of economic, political and cultural spheres and processes</em>’.</p><p> </p><p>The earliest origin of the process of globalization is traced with the beginning of modernity after the Renaissance in the West. During eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the modernity emerged in European civilization with secular humanism and gradual decline of religion and morality. It was the time when Christianity removed from the public sphere but Christian morality particularly protestant remain still alive. That morality was intertwined and collaborated with the system of capitalism in economical and industrial terms, as the modernity and globalization is the direct out come of the industrial capitalism. The values of this system spread worldwide by the imperialism of Europe and later on of America.</p><p> </p><p>Here, it is not possible to discuss the whole process of globalization and its ramifications, as the goal of this paper is just to analyze in brief the concerns of the Muslims in India and the world as a reflection of the process of modernity and globalization. It will explain why the Muslims are not ready to emulate the West as such. In this paper I am largely benefited by the ideas of Ejaz Akram, which he had expressed on the subject ‘The Muslim World and Globalization’.</p><div><div><p> </p></div><div><p> </p></div></div>

scholarly journals Nachman Bratslavsky and his interpretation of tsadicism as spiritual leadership in the context of Hasidic doctrine

2008 ◽  
pp. 37-45
Author(s):  
L.M. Moskalenko
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Leadership ◽  
Population Census ◽  
The West ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Spiritual Leader ◽  
National Values ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Special Studies

From the late 1990s, Hasidism in Ukraine has increasingly become a means of attracting mostly secular Ukrainian Jewry (104,000, according to the most recent All-Ukrainian Population Census), to religious and national values. Every year, Ukraine becomes a center of pilgrimage for religious Jews from all over the world. About 20,000 Bratislava Hasidim come to Uman for the grave of their spiritual leader Nachman Bratslavsky. The pilgrimage attracts the attention of the media, the public and the media. Talking about the Bratslav Hasidic, they draw attention to the external attributes of this spiritual stream, to scandals related to burial and almost nothing - to the religious and philosophical meaning of Nachman Bratslavsky's teachings, to his socio-psychological and socio-cultural phenomenon. Elements of this doctrine have not yet been the subject of special studies by Ukrainian religious scholars. Meanwhile, in the West and in Israel, the spiritual heritage of Rabbi Nachman arouses the continued interest of philosophers, historians and anthropologists, and his works are intensively published and reprinted.

scholarly journals XVI. Astronomical observations relating to the construction of the heavens, arranged for the purpose of a critical examination, the result of which appears to throw some new light upon the organization of the celestial bodies

1811 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 269-336 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Examination ◽  
Gradual Change ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
The Subject

Aknowledge of the construction of the heavens has always been the ultimate object of my observations, and having been many years engaged in applying my forty, twenty, and large ten feet telescopes, on account of their great space-penetrating power to review the most interesting objects discovered in my sweeps, as well as those which had before been communicated to the public in the Connoissance des Temps , for 1784, I find that by arranging these objects in a certain successive regular order, they may be viewed in a new light, and, if I am not mistaken, an examination of them will lead to consequences which cannot be indifferent to an inquiring mind. If it should be remarked that in this new arrangement I am not entirely consistent with what I have already in former papers said on the nature of some objects that have come under my observation, I must freely confess that by continuing my sweeps of the heavens my opinion of the arrangement of the stars and their magnitudes, and of some other particulars, has undergone a gradual change; and indeed when the novelty of the subject is considered, we cannot be surprised that many things formerly taken for granted, should on examination prove to be different from what they were generally, but incautiously, supposed to be.

scholarly journals The Accuracy of Astronomical Observations at Sea

1957 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 420-422
Author(s):  
J. M. Sharpey-Schafer
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Government ◽  
Nautical Almanac

The statistical analysis in the Institute Working Party's report on the accuracy of astronomical observations at sea (this Journal, 10, 223) is a fine piece of work for which we should all be most grateful to Mr. Sadler and the staff of H.M. Nautical Almanac Office. Indeed it is perhaps not out of place to recall the traditions by which the Royal Observatory supported by the Government of the day has always helped navigation, and to express gratitude to the Astronomer Royal for permitting and encouraging the work.

scholarly journals Czekając na Europę. Od Pomarańczowej Rewolucji do Euromajdanu (2004–2014)

2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-46
Author(s):  
Ola Hnatiuk
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
New Media ◽  
Customs Union ◽  
The West ◽  
The Public ◽  
Eu Integration ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Is Integration ◽  
The Eu

The subject of this text is integration with the West in Ukrainian public debate in the period between the Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan (2004–2014). The author suggests that the gradual shift in public opinion after 2006, from an EU orientation toward Ukraine’s integration with the Eurasian Customs Union (since 2014 the Eurasian Union, the EAU), was connected with the passivity of pro-Western intellectuals. Having allowed themselves to be pushed out of the newspapers and national television channels, which belong to oligarchs, they found a communications niche in new media forums, where contact with the public is much more limited in terms of numbers. The author also points out the manipulation of public opinion by state services during Janukovych’s presidency for the purpose of marginalizing the national-democratic camp. The author analyzes the changes in opinions expressed by Jurii Andruchovych: from articulating openness to the European project and a civil concept of the Ukrainian nation, through doubting in the possibility of integration with the EU, to accenting the ethnic qualities of Ukrainianness and an elite exclusiveness. In the author’s opinion, another cause of the lack of stability in public opinion on EU integration was EU policy, which was devoid of a long-term strategy in regard to Ukraine.

I. On the laws of the rise and fall of the tide in the River Thames

1842 ◽  
Vol 132 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Level Line ◽  
Solar Time ◽  
The Public ◽  
Vertical Scale ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
River Thames ◽  
The Times ◽  
Made In

In the winter of 1840-1841, an extensive series of observations of tides was made, in accordance with my suggestions, at Deptford Royal Victualling Yard. For these observations, as well as for those which follow (and which form more immediately the subject of this paper), I am indebted to Captain Shirreff, R.N., Captain Superintendent of the Royal Victualling Yard and Dock Yard at Deptford. By the kindness of this able officer, I was allowed to give such directions to the police constables on duty in the Victualling Yard as I thought necessary for my purpose; and by his continual superintendence of the observations, I was able to satisfy myself that they were conducted exactly as I desired, and were worthy of the fullest confidence. I cannot adequately express my sense of the attention which thus put me in possession of the data that I desired, and in the very form in which I desired them, without the smallest trouble to me in the whole transaction. The mode of making the observations was the following. Under the direction of Captain Shirreff, a vertical scale of feet and inches was marked on the return of the wharf-wall adjoining to the principal landing-stairs of the Victualling Yard. The graduations increased in going downwards, the top of the wharf-wall being the zero. As the bottom of this return of the wall was sometimes dry at low water, a level line was carried to the extremity of the causeway at the bottom of the principal stairs, and another vertical scale (in continuation of the former) was measured there. Thus every observation of the surface of the water was a measure of its depression below the top of the wharf-wall. The times of the observations were in all cases the quarters of hours of mean solar time, as indicated by the striking of the clock of the Victualling Yard. It is proper to mention, that, in consequence of the extensive visibility of the signal-ball of the Royal Observatory (which is dropped at 1 h P. M. precisely), the public clocks in the neighbourhood of Greenwich are for the most part extremely well regulated; and I have therefore little doubt that the times of observation are pretty accurately those which they profess to be.

scholarly journals VIII. Magnetic survey of Belgium in 1871

1873 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 341-357
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Points ◽  
The Other ◽  
Magnetic Survey ◽  
Horizontal Force ◽  
The West ◽  
Magnetic Elements ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
Complete Series ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Made In

Previous to the year 1871 few observations had been made in Belgium for determining the elements of terrestrial magnetism, if we except the series which has been carried on without interruption at the Royal Observatory since 1828. Before this latter date the Intensity and Dip had never been ascertained, and there existed only two reliable measures of the Declination, viz. that of 20°35'·5 for Ostend, which Pigot observed in 1772, and the other for Nieuport, which, at about the same date, was found by Mann to be 19°48'·5. Since 1828 the observations made at any other station besides Brussels have not been numerous. In 1854 the Dip was measured at Antwerp, Courtray, Ghent, Mons, and Ostend; the Horizontal Force was found at Liége and Louvain in 1829, 1850, and 1854, and also at Namur in 1829; and the three elements were observed in 1859 at Ghent and Mechlin. The results of these various observations are collected in the work entitled “La Physique du Globe,” by M. A. Quetelet, and in Dr. Lamont’s 'Untersuchungen über die Richtung und Stärke des Erdmagnetismus in Belgien,’ &c. The above being the only determinations of the magnetic elements, there is an obvious want of a complete series of observations at a sufficient number of stations, and the survey which forms the subject of the present paper was undertaken with the view of supplying the required series of connected values of the three elements. The instruments employed in this survey were the Barrow dip-circle, the Jones unifilar, and the Frodsham chronometer of Stonyhurst Observatory, and an excellent theodolite by Troughton and Simms for determining the azimuth of the fixed points for the Declination. For this last instrument I was indebted to the kindness of James Shoolbred, Esq., C. E. All necessary information respecting the magnets and instruments will be found in the paper on the Magnetic Survey of the West of France printed in the Phil. Trans, of 1870.

Time and Latitude in South Africa

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
J. Hers
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Astronomical Determination ◽  
Limited Accuracy ◽  
Better Than

In South Africa the modern outlook towards time may be said to have started in 1948. Both the two major observatories, The Royal Observatory in Cape Town and the Union Observatory (now known as the Republic Observatory) in Johannesburg had, of course, been involved in the astronomical determination of time almost from their inception, and the Johannesburg Observatory has been responsible for the official time of South Africa since 1908. However the pendulum clocks then in use could not be relied on to provide an accuracy better than about 1/10 second, which was of the same order as that of the astronomical observations. It is doubtful if much use was made of even this limited accuracy outside the two observatories, and although there may – occasionally have been a demand for more accurate time, it was certainly not voiced.

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